Marriage(s) and Relationships: Married to: Adela of Normandy ABT. 1081, Chartres Cathedral, FRANCE
Child:Emma de Blois Child:Count de Chartres Guillaume de Blois Child:Henri de Blois Child:Eudes de Blois Child:Matilda\Maud de Blois Child:Lithuaise de Blois Child:Agnes de Blois Child:Count de Blois+Chartres Thibaut IV-II Child:Ct. de Boulogne+King of Engl. Stephen de BloisNotes: Child by NN. Also Count of Blois, Champaigne, Count of Meaux, Chartres
and Tourain - a crusader under Godfrey de Bouillon, who fell, gallantly
fighting against the Infidels at Rames. (Battle of Ascalon actually).
Source: Brian Tompsett, Leo van de Pas.
Source: *Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europaeischen Staaten* 4 vol.,
Marburg, 1953, 1975, by W.K. Prinz von Isenburg.
*Burke's Guide to the Royal Familiy*, London, 1973.
*Nachkommen Gorms des Alten*, 1978, by S. Otto Brenner.
*Europaeische Stammtafeln*, J.A. Stargardt Verlag, Marburg.
Stephen, born in 1096, was the younger son of Adela, daughter of
William the Conqueror, and Stephen, Count of Blois and Champagne.
The death of Stephen's father in 1102 left the welfare of Steven up to his
uncle and King of England, Henry I. Henry was very good to Stephen,
granting him huge estates in both England and Normandy, making
Stephen one of the richest men in the kingdom.
In 1125 Henry realized he would probably die without a male heir.
He designated his only surviving, legitimate child, Matilda, as his
successor. Stephen led the English nobles in acknowledging Matilda, but
it was empty lip service, for within the same month that Henry I died,
Stephen declared himself king. What followed was a bitter civil war and
not as much a reign as a fight for succession. The years of Stephen
were described by one chronicler as a time when 'Christ and his saints
slept.'
Initially, most English and Norman barons preferred Stephen to
Matilda. In the areas where Matilda did gain power, her reign was harsh
and extreme, and to most the idea of a woman on the throne was
unthinkable. But more important, the English objected to Matilda's
husband, Geoffrey of Anjou. After years of rule by monarchs whose
primary interests were not England, they did not want to see the
succession pass to a monarch with Angevin interests. However, Stephen
lacked ruthlessness and failed to inspire loyalty. Instead of definitively
crushing Matilda's coup, Stephen himself was captured in 1141 and put
in prison. Matilda entered London and started planning her coronation,
but Stephen's long suffering wife, also named Matilda, took up her
huband's banner and drove Matilda from the city. The coronation never
took place, and Matilda never became Queen. A few months later, Robert
of Gloucester, the backbone behind Matilda's campaign, was captured.
An exchange took place and Stephen was recoronated King of England.
Matilda's husband, Geoffrey, was himself engaged in battle in
Anjou; and when Robert of Gloucester left England, Stephen captured
Matilda. In a dramatic night escape, Matilda and four fellow captives,
dressed in white cloaks, lowered themselves down the castle wall and
made their way across the snow fields and frozen rivers to safety. The
war continued in this see-saw fashion until 1147 when Rober of
Gloucester died. Disheartened, Matilda left England, never to return.
Matilda's cause was taken up by her sixteen year-old son, Henry, but his
youth and inexperience were no match for the treacherous times. He
returned to Normandy to bide his time.
News of Stephen's earlier capture left a power vacuum in
Normandy, one soon filled by Geoffrey of Anjou. With the arrival of
Matilda, few Normans were willing to fight for a King who had only visited
their shores once in his reign. The long war was at a stalemate.
Stephen's main goal then became the succession of his first son,
Eustace. But, in 1153, Matilda's son Henry returned to England. He was
now Lord of Normandy and Anjou, and married to Eleanor of Aquitaine.
The barons of England began to believe the only end to the hostilities
would be Stephen's recognition of Henry as successor. When Eustace
died in August,1153, the negotiations began. The Treaty of Westminster
declared that Stephen would remain king until his death, Henry would
succeed, and Stephen's second son, William, would inherit the baronial
lands in Normandy. Finally, after eighteen years of war, Stephen would
be able to reign in peace. But the death of his son made the whole
struggle pointless to him, and within the year Stephen died. His reign was
a dark period in England's history, but it paved the way for one of the
longest and well-known dynasties in English history--the
Angevin-Plantagenets.
Biographical information from The Lives of the Kings and Queens of
England, ed.
Antonia Frasier and The Oxford Illustrated History of the British
Monarchy, ed.
John Cannon and Ralph Griffiths.
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